Friday 17 February 2012

Future of Pak Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani

- Anil Narendra
The beleaguered Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is passing through hard times. Confrontation continues between him and the Pak Supreme Court. Chances of Gilani getting relief appears to be dim. On Friday, the Supreme Court rejected his plea and directed him to appear before the Court on Feb 13th. It was quite a big blow for Gilani. It may be recalled that Gilani had appealed to the Supreme Court to quash the order summoning him for framing charges against himself in the contempt of the Court case. Taking note of Gilani failing to reopen graft cases against the President Asif Ali Zardari, the Supreme Court had directed Gilani to appear before it on Feb 13. Gilani's lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, in his 200-pages appeal, had sought to cancel the Court's order asking the Prime Minister to appear before the Supreme Court on Feb 13th, which was rejected by the Court on Friday. Charges against Gilani were framed on Feb 13th for failing to comply with the Court's order for reopening graft cases against President Zardari. Before rejecting Gilani's appeal, the Chairman of the eight-member Bench and Chief Justice of Pak Supreme Court, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry asked the lawyer of Gilani to reply categorically whether the Prime Minister would write to the Swiss Government to reopen graft cases against President Zardari or not? The Chief Justice said, "You may talk to the Prime Minister on phone. We give you ten minutes for this." But Gilani's lawyer replied, "I do not have any such right." Then the Chief Justice said, "Your appeal is dismissed."
What will happen next? Will Gilani resign? In case, Gilani resigns, the Government will not fall, as the ruling coalition is having sufficient majority. It can appoint someone else as the Prime Minister in place of Gilani. But one thing is certain, the confrontation with the judiciary could weaken the Pakistan People's Party and the next general elections could be postponed to 2013. If political stability in Pakistan, which is already beset with numerous problems, deepens, it would not augur well. There is Taliban issue on one hand and ever increasing poverty and unemployment on the other. Situation in Pakistan, today is sliding from bad to worse. There is one more serious allegation against the ruling coalition. Transparency International Pakistan (TIP), in its recent report has said that Pakistan has suffered a loss to the tune of 8,500 billion rupees during the Gilani rule. This loss has been due to corruption, tax evasion and bad governance. The TIP Consultant, Adil Gilani told the News that corruption had serious consequences. The report says that the present Government of Pakistan, which came to power in 2008, is the most corrupt government in Pakistan so far. During the tenure of this Government, corruption has crossed all limits and Pakistan has been relegated to the top bracket in the list of most corrupt nations of the World. The confrontation between the Government and the judiciary has also aggravated due to one more reason. The Supreme Court has suspended 28 public representatives, including three ministers. It came to the notice of the Court during a hearing that bye-elections for Senate, National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies were conducted by an incomplete Election Commission. At the time of elections for these bodies, some posts of members of the Election Commission were lying vacant, The Supreme Court, therefore declared these bye-elections void and suspended the memberships of all the elected representatives. The political career of the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is quite uncertain. He may have to resign from the post of the Prime Minister. He may be sent to jail for six months. All depends on the course of action, which the Supreme Court of Pakistan decides to take. Wait and watch for the SC decision on Feb 28th.

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